Edited 10/28/2020
’Tis the season for pumpkin spiced goodies, cooler mornings, football games, costumed kiddos, quilting with friends.
It’s the time of year when we would usually be meeting for our Fall Bee, gathering the last couple years at Tempe’s Pyle Center. Prior to that, we met at the Community Room of Chandler Police Department. This year looks a little different as we continue working from our homes for AZ Blankets 4 Kids. It’s a little early in the season for our Winter visitors, but always fun with full-time local residents.
Carol and her husband moved to Arizona in 1997, from Wisconsin. Carol retired from General Electric Medical Systems in Milwaukee. She loves bingo, dinner shows and sewing. In Wisconsin, she would make quilt tops that ladies at her Lutheran Church would finish. All the quilts were then sent to foreign countries. She and her husband go back to Wisconsin in the summer for two or three weeks, to see family and friends, and go shopping for material at all the different fabric places.
Carol joined AZ Blankets 4 Kids in 2003. If this were considered a job, we’d say Carol Pettis consistently puts in overtime. Carol has a knack for finding cute quilt panels and creating clever appliqué characters. We often think of Carol when panels are donated, and she always finishes them in a beautiful way and we would delight in receiving them, and parading them for our October Bee attendees to ooh and aah over.
On August 28th, President Letty Fowell, and distribution volunteer, Nina Williams, visited Carol’s home and got a few photos to stand in for our parade this year. In the photos below you can see the stacks of Carol’s quilts throughout her home. She donated 75 blankets that day. On October 26th, President Letty Fowell collected another 66 quilts at Carol’s home. Carol calculates that she has donated 1,444 quilts since 2003.
We are so grateful to Carol and all our volunteers who continue working from home. We miss seeing you in person at our bees; quilting, cutting, tying, spraying, lunching, chatting, raffling, and indulging in our fabric obsessions.
Carol kindly shared photos of her completed quilts. Some are featured below, in this virtual blanket parade slideshow.
If you’re ready to donate your blanket homework and you use one of our local quilt shop drop-off locations, please call the shop first, and make sure they are able to accept your donation. Our distribution volunteers are making pick-ups as needed, and many of our recipient agencies are requesting blankets.
35th Ave Sew & Vac, Chandler – (480) 961-7363
A Quilter’s Oasis, Mesa – (480) 354-4077
Bernina Connection, Phoenix – (480) 553-8350
Cutting Edge Quilts, Chandler – (480) 857-3443
Mad B’s Quilt and Sew, Mesa – (480) 964-8914
Modern Quilting, Phoenix – (602) 710-1771
Mulqueen Sewing and Vacuum Center, Glendale – (623) 934-0084
Mulqueen Sewing and Vacuum Center, Mesa – (480) 545-0778
Sun Valley Quilts, Sun City – (623) 972-2091
If you’re in the Phoenix metro area and unable to deliver to one of our drop-off locations, please leave a voicemail at (480) 283-8746, or email info@azblankets4kids.com, and we’ll work to make accommodations to receive your donation.
Until we’re safely able to resume our bee schedule, we wish you all good health and happy stitching, along with our gratitude for your time and talents.
Thank you SO much Carol Pettis! So many wonderful quilts for the kids. They will love them!